Rhiannon Kopynec '06.5 and Shannon O'Hern '06 have a proposition. They intend to spread sex-positive, female- and queer-friendly sex-education from Providence to Washington, D.C.
The two are planning to buy Miko Exoticwear - "a retailer, wholesaler and manufacturer of lingerie, sex toys and gifts, books and videos, fetishgear and accessories" located at 653 North Main St., according to Miko's Web site - and open up a new store and resource center in Washington, an endeavor they want to dedicate to the sexual education of women and their partners.
Kopynec said her inspiration for the idea came after taking Brown's Female Sexuality Workshop in the fall of her junior year, during which she visited Miko for the first time.
"It changed my life," she said of the workshop. The positive experience led Kopynec to become a FemSex facilitator for the spring 2006 session, during which she first started working with O'Hern, who was serving as a coordinator.
Kopynec began working at Miko soon after and by June 1 had become a full-time manager of the store.
Once people learned she worked at Miko, Kopynec said both acquaintances and strangers would approach her with questions. These ranged in topic from how to achieve orgasm to explanations of different types of sex.
Kopynec said the ample curiosity from women in the community caused her to realize the high demand for a place "that is comfortable and inviting for people to be able to really openly talk about sex and their own sexuality and not be judged for it."
O'Hern and Kopynec began discussing the idea for a store, and Kopynec said she first came up with the idea for purchasing Miko after talking with owner Jeff Gellman. According to Kopynec, he suggested that they buy the store on North Main Street and use the Miko brand to open other locations rather than starting a new store. Gellman also told Kopynec that he would only consider selling the store to her and that it was not otherwise for sale, she said.
Meanwhile, O'Hern moved to Washington after graduation and suggested she and Kopynec look for a possible location for a Miko branch there.
According to Kopynec, O'Hern found that most existing sex stores in that city were fetish shops geared toward men. "Right now it isn't very easy for women to gain access to sex-positive education or sex-positive health education," Kopynec said. She pointed out that the staff at most sex stores, especially those on the East Coast, "aren't trained, they don't know anything about safety and they aren't there to make women feel comfortable when they walk into the store."
In response, O'Hern has been hard at work in D.C. building a community to prepare for the opening of the store, she said. She is getting a feel for the market by throwing toy parties. The parties, she said, are a "sales model that has been used ever since make-up and Tupperware" and "build off social networks women already have, allowing women to explore their options in their own home," she said.
In the mean time, Kopynec said she and O'Hern began working on a business plan, which involves purchasing Miko and then creating either a store connected "to Miko in its form now," or "starting our own store and resource center," which could begin as part of the new store and later branch out to become its own entity.
sThen, depending on the store's success, Kopynec said they will either turn the business into a nonprofit organization in which the store's proceeds support the resource center or maintain the for-profit status and donate profits to existing women's groups.
"If we do start a resource center and it's really successful as part of Miko and we can offer classes and we can give money to female sexuality organizations across the country, maybe it doesn't need to be its own thing," Kopynec added.
Kopynec said she would like to loosely model the resource center on Miko's "Learning and Resource Center," which offers books, videos, toys and advice. The resource center Kopynec and O'Hern plan to open will be more accessible than the one offered by Miko, which is currently only open during the times classes are held in the space.
Kopynec said she and O'Hern also want to expand beyond what Miko currently offers in its resource center, "setting up a central database or compilation of all the resources from female sexuality workshops that exist now, reaching out to schools across the country to encourage them to start workshops and to give them the resources to do that," she said. Kopynec added that resources would include "syllabi, books, videos, materials and, in the future, extend to facilitator training."
Kopynec stressed that no matter what she and O'Hern end up doing, the Miko store on North Main Street will not close.
Drumming up support for the project has not been easy, and the pair is still working to secure funds. "It is really hard to find (financial support) because we are in our young 20s just graduating from college - banks don't see this as the best time to go out and start this company," Kopynec said.
O'Hern is also in the process of applying to medical school: "My main career goal is to go into medicine, and I feel the mission of Miko to be in keeping with my goals in medicine," she said. She said she hopes to bring a "more holistic approach" to sexual health.
Currently, O'Hern and Kopynec each focus on a particular aspect of the enterprise: "Rhiannon does the business side, and I'm more interested in the medical, sexual health aspect," O'Hern said. When asked what her involvement with Miko will be if she is accepted into medical school next fall, O'Hern said "that depends on where I am, what I'm doing and where Miko is at that point."
As for the timeframe for their project, Kopynec said, "If this all goes forward as planned, (we will buy Miko) in the next six months to a year. We have plans to open up a store in D.C. probably on the line of a five-year plan."
Kopynec said she has also received a great deal of support and advice from the professors of EN 193: "Social Entrepreneurship." The course, which she is taking this semester, "combines retail aspect with social mission," she said, and the class' four professors - Adjunct Lecturer in Engineering Deborah Schimberg, Associate Director of the Watson Institute Geoffrey Kirkman, Professor Emeritus of Engineering Barrett Hazeltine and Senior Research Engineer Christopher Bull - "have been incredibly supportive and helpful.
